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Month: January 2017

Check out these two sentences: “Night after night, he could hardly sleep for wishing” and then “So, with a flashlight in his paws and hope in his heart, Bunny jumped out of bed and tiptoed through the dark.” Those are really nice sentences, right?

They are that much nicer when you know – from the four pages that precede them in Annie Silvestro’s debut picture book, BUNNY’S BOOK CLUB (illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss) – that the thing keeping bunny up is BOOKS. Bunny loves books and wants more. He knows there are many to be had in the library, but is pretty sure animals aren’t allowed there by day, when it’s open. So out he heads for a little night-time reconnaissance.

Bunny tries everything to make his way into the building. To no avail. “Until finally he notice(s)… the book return.”

The book return! What kid doesn’t love a mail slot or, better yet, the book drop at the library? Those openings are magical little portals where you can make things disappear, sending them from one world to another. And the book return turns out to be Bunny’s perfect portal into the library — for himself.

Getting into the library is just the beginning though. I won’t say more, other that that library cards figure in too. And if the book return is a portal, then the library card is a portkey – a magical object that transports you not just to the other side of a wall, but to worlds far away in space and time — worlds loaded with drama and intrigue and all manner of new and fascinating stuff.

It’s a big, awesome deal when a kid gets her first library card and can access those book-worlds on her own, and is not something that most little readers take lightly. BUNNY’S BOOK CLUB captures that moment beautifully. It is a book sure to delight bibliophiles of all ages.

Annie Silvelstro’s BUNNY’S BOOK CLUB releases on February 7 with Doubleday Books for Young Readers — preorder it here!

Learn about more 2017 debut picture book authors and their books at Picture The Books.

Welcome to Design of the Picture Book! I'm Carter Higgins, and I'm a writer and librarian for kids. I spent a spectacular stint as the Children's Book Editor at <a href="http://www.designmom.com/">Design Mom</a> which I loved! You can find my column <a href="http://www.designmom.com/category/childrens-lit/">here</a>.<br /> I'm a K-6 librarian, a former-ish graphic designer, an SCBWI member, and a huge fan of words and pictures.<br /> Represented by <a href="http://www.rpcontent.com/">Rubin Pfeffer of Rubin Pfeffer Content, LLC</a>.